Hey, everyone. TheAmazingSpidey here. I've written over 130 blogs on this site, a lot of them about movies, but none of them did I ever feel like I was raising an original point to say the least. Which is why this personally is possibly the most exciting blog I've written, because I felt like I could raise a point that no one else, or not a lot of people at the very least, have.
Suicide Squad was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. If you've followed me enough on this site you'd know that although I'm not oblivious to Dawn of Justice's flaws, I still loved it quite a bit. In particular, the Ultimate Cut of the film. And I only thought it could get better from thereon out. I envisioned Suicide Squad to be something fun, full of heart and well written. While what we got instead proved to be something upsetting.
Suicide Squad isn't an unwatchable movie. There are aspects of the film I loved. The performances were great. Margot Robbie rocked my god damn world as Harley Quinn. Will Smith restored my respect for him as a performer. Jared Leto stole every single scene he was in. Character interactions are great. The cinematography is still pretty. But on a whole, the film felt off from the get go. I couldn't quite put my hand on it by the time I left the theatre. But upon recalling on and asking myself questions about the film: I believe I found, what to me, is the fundamental flaw in David Ayer's superhero action adventure.
Suicide Squad feels like a movie
The affect of any good movie is to create an allusion of reality, or organicness in the storytelling. Even the most fantastical films like Lord of The Rings or Star Wars should be able to do this. And it has little to do with being grounded in reality. It's about deceiving your viewings into the belief that what is occurring in the film ISN'T occurring to get us to a certain point. That the concept ISN'T existing to trump the story. That whatever events are occurring in the film AREN'T occurring as a reason for the movie to exist.
Good storytelling should dissolve meta from narrative. You shouldn't feellike events are existing to get us to a certain point, or waiting for the characters to go somewhere else. You should be there with them, and feel like the events that transpire in the film when they do, spurred from a series of events that led the characters up to the place.
For example, Guardians of The Galaxy. It isn't a perfect movie, but in that movie - the events leading up to the Guardians coming together all transpired naturally. Of course, they're not actually - the filmmakers are deliberately getting us to that certain point. But all of the events in Guardians of The Galaxy leading up to them teaming up were malleable occurrences. You're sitting there and you're not thinking "Quill is dancing towards the orb so he can eventually get caught by Korath so that he can eventually escape with the orb and then get caught up with the rest of the Guardians."
Within 5 minutes of Suicide Squad, we're made to sit through a 10 minute sequence of Amanda Waller seated on a table with government men as she narrates choppy flashbacks of almost all of the Justice League members. It's so meta. You're sitting on your chair watching the movie & you are aware that it's set up. Beyond that, it undermines any emotional impact of any of the scenes, making it feel like a music video, or series of momentsas opposed to being a scenes. You're not witnessing Deadshot being separated from his daughter. You're not watching The Joker and Harley develop love for each other and her eventually becoming crazier than him. These aren't ensuing life events, they are moments. I do not feel a sense of reality watching a music video, and this movie is no different.
A metaphor of this fundamental flaw is the relationship between The Joker and Harley. We get flashbacks of their relationship, but they do not utilise the concept to tell a story of love, abuse, and misdeed. You never get a sense that anything is occurring off screen between the two. Imagine how impactful the Ace Chemicals scene could've been if they'd established an abusive relationship between the two. Instead, the scene's disturbing nature is vacuous; unearned.
In fact, the song Sucker For Painis a metaphor for the abusive relationship between Joker and Harley. And since it's barely a concept in the final film, the song's existence in this film is irrelevent.
Everything I've said so far justifies why the Squad being sent on their missions is void of any significance because I wasn't there with any of the characters in their pivotal moments. Because a scene where I'm there with the characters is one that dissolves the actors, the soundstage, and the costumes and makeups into a living, breathing canvas. But there's been so much telling at this point of the movie and all of these defining moments with no connective tissue.
The earlier moments of this film are practically a music video. The antagonist journeying into a villain is summed up in about a minute. Instead of a circumstantial decent into madness, it is a story beat that exists in service of supplementing the Squad members their mission.
Once they're sent on their mission, 60% of the remaining run time of the movie consists of unscripted, choppily edited scenes of the Suicide Squad gunning down monsters. Because a compelling story immerses you to such a degree where you become a part of the motion picture. This awareness of you are watching a movie is reinforced by the presence of a concept, but no story to tell.
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